z?6 ACCOUNT of the GERMAN THEATRE. 



u Le Dramaturgic de Hambourg." His plays, accordingly, 

 though not exactly conformable to the Ariftotelian ftandard, 

 approach pretty near to it in the obfervation of the unities. 

 He is faid to have got into a difpute with Goethe on this fub- 

 ject, in which, from a degree of timidity in his nature, he ra- 

 ther yielded to his antagonift. I am not fure if he has pro- 

 fited by confining himfelf more than fome other of his coun- 

 trymen within the bounds of the regular drama. The fable 

 of Emilie de Galotti, as well as of his other tragedies, is more 

 regular than happy, and the denouement neither natural nor 

 pleafing. It is founded on circumftances fomewhat fimilar to 

 thofe in the ftory of Virginia. A Prince of Guaftalla is defpe- 

 rately enamoured of Emilie de Galotti, who is juft about 

 to be married to a man of rank and fortune, the Count Appi- 

 ani. On the day of his marriage, he is way-laid by order of 

 a wicked minifter of the prince, and murdered. His bride is 

 brought to the Prince's country-feat, where, to prevent any 

 chance of her difhonour, her father kills her. 



After the firft reading of Emilie, I was difpofed to wonder 

 at the reputation it had acquired ; but a fecond placed it higher 

 in my eftimation. This was naturally the cafe in a performance 

 where the whole was neither fo perfect nor fo interefting as 

 fome of the fcenes in detail were forcible and ftriking. The 

 heroine Emilie de Galotti is but imperfectly drawn, and 

 not very well fupported. Indeed, it may in general be obferved 

 in thefe pieces, that the characters of the female perfonages 

 are by much the moft defective, both in beauty and in force. 

 This may perhaps be afcribed to the ftate of fociety in Ger- 

 many, where the fex is lefs an object of confideration and re- 

 fpect than in France, and fome other parts of the Continent. 

 But there is another lady in this tragedy, the Countefs d'Orftna^ 

 the betrayed and abandoned miftrefs of the Prince, whofe cha- 

 racter the poet has delineated with great ability \ and one 

 fcene, in which me is introduced along with the father of 



EMILIEj 



